Ohio EPA: Don't let Ohio drown in sewage

Bacteria Plagues Ohio's Waterways

The Ohio EPA just released its draft 2014 Integrated Water Quality Report to address the condition's of Ohio's waterways. Unfortunately, they did not collect sufficient data to better understand bacterial pollution from animal and human sewage.

They admit in their draft report that they failed to collect adequate E. Coli data to determine the recreational health for 60% of Ohio's inland streams and 60% of Ohio's large rivers. From the data they collected, 3/4 of their samples for inland streams and 1/2 samples for large rivers contained high levels of bacteria.

These numbers are cause for alarm and the Ohio EPA needs to act urgently to collect missing data across the state. However, it seems that they do not take this concern seriously since they collected less bacteria data in 2011 and 2012 than in 2010 (as seen in their 2012 report).

Urge the Ohio EPA to take immediate action to extensively monitor Ohio's streams and rivers for E.Coli to protect our health and wellness.

If the Ohio EPA does not increase E. Coli sampling in Ohio's streams and rivers, I fear that you will not know how to accurately address and reduce bacterial pollution. Do not allow raw sewage in our waterways to threaten the livelihoods of the general public.